| | Paula Abdul Greatest Hits: Straight Up! CD Paula Abdul Discography of CDs
(2 Customer Reviews)
It's kind of shocking to realize that it took Virgin and Paula Abdul six full seasons of American Idol to capitalize on her resurgence of fame, but they finally got around to exploiting her back catalog with the release of the 18-track Greatest Hits: Straight Up! in May 2007, just as the sixth season was about to draw to a close. It is what it says it is: a collection of her greatest hits, all 13 of her Billboard charting singles, plus five other album tracks. Of these, not all of them are huge hits and some aren't even that familiar. Abdul peaked early, with all of her biggest and best hits arriving on her 1988 debut, Forever Your Girl, which contained "Forever Your Girl," "Straight Up," "Cold Hearted," "The Way You Love Me," "Knocked Out," and "Opposites Attact," all of which are here, along with "One or the Other," also featured here. That means that Straight Up! has seven of the ten tracks from Forever Your Girl, a pretty high ratio, but it's only right that it dominates this hits compilation, because these are the songs that Abdul's fame was built upon. After that debut, her decline in popularity was pretty swift: her 1991 sophomore set, Spellbound, had four hits in "Rush, Rush," "The Promise of a New Day," "Blowing Kisses in the Wind," and "Vibeology," but none of them were as big or memorable as the singles from the debut, and when Straight Up! works its way toward them, it starts to loose momentum, just as Abdul's career did. She stumbled through 1995's Head Over Heels, as she tried to modernize her eternally chipper dance-pop, before disappearing from the spotlight until American Idol. Straight Up! charts this career arc -- minus the career revival, since she hasn't recorded a comeback album, after all -- with accuracy, generously sampling from all three albums, and if the selections from Forever Your Girl are undeniably still the highlights (and the reason to get this set) there are a couple of surprises along with the way, including how "The Promise of a New Day" and "Vibeology" stand as bright, colorful time capsules of early-'90s dance-pop and how slinky and seductive 1995's "My Love for Real" is. These aren't enough to offer a revisionist take on Abdul's recording career -- this hits set doesn't smash conventional wisdom, it cements it -- but as a summary of her years as a pop star, Greatest Hits: Straight Up! is as good as any hits disc ever could be. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Audio Remixers: Peter Mokran; Lafayette Carthon, Jr.
Photographer: Blake Little.
Arrangers: Iki Levy; Peter Lord; V. Jeffrey Smith; Robb Boldt; Rhett Lawrence; Elliot Wolff; Oliver Leiber; Howard Hersh; Curtis "Fitz" Williams; St. Paul.
Personnel: Paula Abdul (vocals).
Additional personnel: Ofra Haza, Wild Pair.
Greatest Hits: Straight Up! Music | Category | Rock/Pop Albums, Rock CDs, R&B, Pop, Dance, Greatest Hits Collections | | Label | EMI Latin | | Orig Year | 2007 | | All Time Sales Rank | 55354  | | CD Universe Part number | 7405571 | | Catalog number | 90527 | | Discs | 1 | | Release Date | May 08, 2007 | | Studio/Live | Studio | | Mono/Stereo | Stereo | | Producer | Iki Levy; Peter Lord; Babyface; V. Jeffrey Smith; Robb Boldt; Rhett Lawrence; Elliot Wolf; Oliver Leiber; Keith Cohen; Howard Hersh; Curtis "Fitz" Williams; Jon Lind; Iki Levy; Peter Lord; Babyface; Howie Hersh; V. Jeffrey Smith; Robb Boldt; Rhett Lawrence; Peter Mokran; Lafayette Carthon; Elliot Wolf; Oliver Leiber; Curtis Williams; Keith Cohen; L.A.; Mike Ragogna (Compilation) | | Recording Time | 71 minutes | | Personnel | Paula Abdul - vocals
Also: Rhett Lawrence, S.T., Oliver Leiber, Ofra Haza, V. Jeffrey Smith, Curtis "Fitz" Williams, Robb Boldt, Howard Hersh, Peter Lord, Elliot Wolff, Lafayette Carthon Jr. Photographer: Blake Little. Arrangers: Iki Levy |
Paula Abdul Greatest Hits: Straight Up! Songs Greatest Hits: Straight Up! Music Review Average Rating: (4 out of 5 stars)   A PRETTY GOOD HITS PACKAGE PAULA only released three studio albums so far in her career. She has more compilations than studio albums. On this compilation she has some great songs,and just a handful of songs that are just good. The best songs on this album are the following. FOREVER YOUR GIRL,STRAIGHT UP,COLD HEARTED,IT'S JUST THE WAY THAT YOU LOVE ME,OPPOSITES ATTRACT,RUSH RUSH,THE PROMISE OF A NEW DAY,BLOWING KISSES IN THE WIND,WILL YOU MARRY ME?,MY LOVE IS FOR REAL,CRAZY COOL,IF I WAS YOUR GIRL and IT'S ALL ABOUT FEELIN GOOD Submitted by Joel (Miami Fla.) Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
Finally, all of the hits on one disc This 2007 compilation finally collects all of Paula's hits on one disc. Even better, it doesn't contain any crappy remixes. Submitted by Galley (Greenville, SC, USA) Was This Review Helpful? Yes No
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